Importance of air movement for promoting gas and heat exchanges between plants and atmosphere under controlled environments

Abstract

The effects of the air velocity less than 1.3 m s(-1) on net photosynthetic rates, transpiration rates and water use efficiencies of plant seedlings canopies and single leaves were assessed. Control of air movement is important to enhance gas exchange between plants and the ambient air, and would consequently be important to promote plant growth. The suppression of the transpiration rate was more considerable than that of the net photosynthetic rate at low air velocities, and the water use efficiency was higher at lower air velocities. Importance of air velocity for controlling the gas exchange of plantlets in micropropagation and plants in space farming under microgravity conditions was emphasized. Control of air movement was also important to make the environmental variables uniform inside the plant canopy.